Chapter 656: Dead City

After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li shook his head as his brows unfurrowed.

Seeing as he couldn't find Fox 3 and the others, he would just have to explore this place by himself for now. After all, he was also very curious about these ruins.

As far as he was aware, the Mantra Treasured Axis and the Mantra Domain had both come out of True Mantra Sect, and neither of them were complete, so perhaps he could find their full versions in this place.

Right as Han Li was about to set off, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he swept a sleeve through the air to summon his Profound Heavenly Gourd.

A streak of golden light flew out of the gourd at his behest, and it was none other than the golden flag that he had captured earlier.

He grabbed onto the flag before conducting a close inspection, and in doing so, he discovered that the flag was even more remarkable than he had first thought.

The golden star designs on the flag were flashing like living creatures, and it felt as if they could fly out of the flag at any moment.

Furthermore, he could sense tremendous time law power fluctuations surging out of the flag, and they were even more formidable than the time law power fluctuations in the golden lock given to him by Daoist Master Jingyang.

This is also a graded immortal treasure!

A hint of elation flashed through Han Li's eyes at this realization, and he opened his mouth to release a burst of golden light, which enveloped the flag before sucking it into his body for refinement.

At the moment, he was in an unknown and potentially dangerous place, so he had to elevate his own powers through any means possible.

With that in mind, Han Li stowed his Profound Heavenly Gourd away, then inspected his surroundings momentarily before flying away in a certain direction.

Due to the limitations on his spiritual sense and eyesight, he was flying very slowly while also constantly scouring his surroundings with his spiritual sense and his Infernal Devilish Eyes.

Even though everything appeared to be peaceful and serene here, there was an indescribable sense of pressure in the air that kept him constantly on edge.

Right at this moment, Mo Guang's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

"Could it be that you've already entered the True Mantra Sect ruins, Fellow Daoist Han? I heard about the True Mantra Sect back when I was with Ma Liang. You're on your own, right? Why don't you release me to help you out?"

"You've come out of seclusion?" Han Li asked, clearly rather taken aback to suddenly be hearing Mo Guang.

"After all these years of hard work, I've finally completely fused with his body, and I won't have to worry about falling out of the High Zenith Stage anymore," Mo Guang replied in a gleeful voice.

"Is that right? Congratulations," Han Li replied.

Mo Guang seemed to be unable to suppress his own excitement, and he continued, "Who would've thought that I would get to the High Zenith Stage before you, Fellow Daoist Han?"

Han Li merely smiled in response, unbothered by Mo Guang's slightly boastful tone.

Given his mastery of the laws of time, his power didn't correspond with his cultivation base at all. Even if Mo Guang were already at the mid-High Zenith Stage, he was confident in his own ability to deal with him.

Mo Guang seemed to have realized that he had let his own excitement get the better of him, and he hurriedly added, "Of course, given your exceptional aptitude, it won't be long before you also reach the High Zenith Stage, Fellow Daoist Han."

"Even though you've successfully stabilized your cultivation base, I think it's best for you to keep consolidating in the Flower Branch domain, and I'll call upon you if I need you," Han Li said.

These ruins seemed to be quite a strange place, and it was best to keep Mo Guang concealed as much as possible, given that he was currently in the body of a Gray Immortal.

"Alright," Mo Guang sighed before falling silent, and Han Li continued to focus on scouring the surrounding environment.

Close to a day passed by in the blink of an eye, and the surrounding environment hadn't changed much at all.

At this point, Han Li was looking a little weary. Constantly maintaining his spiritual sense and his Infernal Devilish Eyes was quite taxing on him, and he had only just taken a recovery pill when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Something seemed to have caught his attention, and he drifted down onto the ground, right in front of an object buried in the ground.

It appeared to be a large rock, but it was concealed under a thick layer of soil, so it was impossible to tell exactly what it was.

Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to conjure up a whirlwind that was several dozen feet tall, and the whirlwind swept away the soil up ahead to reveal the large, blue rock underneath.

It was a part of the remnants of a building, and it seemed to have been crafted out of some type of special stone material. Even after being buried here for countless years, it hadn't succumbed to erosion.

A hint of elation appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he immediately continued onward.

As he progressed onward, he noticed more and more vegetation. The area was no longer as barren as before, and he also spotted more and more fallen buildings.

A short while later, he descended onto the ground once again.

Up ahead was a massive palace that was several thousand feet in size and two hundred to three hundred feet tall, entirely constructed out of the same blue stone material.

Back when it was fully intact, the palace would've undoubtedly been extremely majestic, but right now, it was severely ravaged, and a large section of it had collapsed altogether.

The ground near the palace had also been torn to shreds, indicating that a fierce battle had taken place here at some point.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li released his spiritual sense to inspect the surrounding area, and some time later, he suddenly raised an eyebrow as he flew over to a large rock, then pushed it aside to reveal the skeletal remains of a body.

The skeleton was wearing a white robe that had mostly succumbed to erosion, but Han Li was still able to tell that it was the same True Mantra Sect disciple attire that he had seen during his previous spiritual transmigration.

He heaved a faint sigh at the sight of the body.

He was using the True Mantra Sect's cultivation arts, so in a way, he was somewhat connected and indebted to this sect.

He had heard about what the True Mantra Sect had been like during its heyday from Immortal Lord Hot Flame, and it was certainly a sobering sight to see such a powerful sect fall into ruin.

Han Li quickly set aside that train of thought, then swept his spiritual sense over the body, but wasn't able to find any storage tools.

He remained unfazed as he departed and continued to search through the rest of the palace. Before long, he had discovered several more bodies in True Mantra Sect attire, but their storage tools were also missing.

It didn't take long before he had explored the entire palace, and he had nothing to show for it.

He was rather disappointed by this, and he promptly departed, flying away as a streak of azure light.

Shortly after he left the palace, his expression suddenly changed slightly as he stopped cold in his tracks, and he peered into the distance with his Infernal Devilish Eyes while sweeping a sleeve through the air, releasing a burst of thick azure sword qi that struck the space up ahead.

The space there rippled violently as a vast expanse of black light appeared, and the streak of azure sword qi instantly vanished upon contact, seemingly having been devoured by the black light.

As for the black light itself, it rippled and squirmed slightly like a living creature before slowly fading away.

Is that a spatial rift?

The black light had been completely concealed in space and wasn't giving off any aura, so there was no way that he would've noticed it had it not been for the combination of his spiritual sense and his Infernal Devilish Eyes.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he swept a sleeve through the air once again, this time sending a thick arc of golden lightning crashing into the spot where the black light had just faded.

The black light reappeared, and it was able to devour the arc of golden lightning with ease as well.

A hint of surprise appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he swept a sleeve through the air for a third time, releasing a crimson flying sword that rapidly swelled to over a hundred feet in size before striking the black light.

A dull thud rang out as the giant sword made contact with the black light, only for the former to be snapped in half in an instant.

Han Li's heart jolted slightly upon seeing this.

Thankfully, he had noticed the arc of black light ahead of time. Otherwise, if he had unwittingly flown into it, he would've definitely been severely injured, if not killed on the spot.

With that in mind, Han Li picked up the two halves of the snapped sword, then skirted around the arc of black light as he continued onward.

In the wake of that close call, he became even more cautious, and he didn't dare to withdraw his spiritual sense or Infernal Devilish Eyes for even a moment.

As he continued onward, more and more ruins appeared in his path, and all of them had been destroyed as collateral damage from previous battles.

It didn't take long before another day passed by, and at this point, he was starting to grow a little disgruntled.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The True Mantra Sect ruins had been destroyed to such an extent that he hadn't been able to find anything of use aside from several spirit medicines of a decent quality.

This entire area was like a completely dead city.

The terrain down below was still very flat, but some mountains had occasionally begun to appear.

Han Li flew onward for a moment longer before his expression suddenly changed slightly.

The ground up ahead had completely sunken downward to form a massive valley, and there were some palaces down in the valley that appeared to be relatively intact.

Han Li's eyes immediately lit up as he flew down into the valley.

The valley was enormous, and he was only able to see a small section of it with his spiritual sense and devilish eyes.

The ground in the valley was quite flat and smooth, and there were white stone slabs that paved the earth as far as the eyes could see.

It seemed that this had once been quite an important place.

The valley wasn't spared from the ravages of battle, but the buildings here had been constructed using far better materials, so most of them were still relatively intact.

A hint of excitement welled up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this, and he continued to scour his surroundings while venturing deeper into the valley.

It didn't take long before he was quite deep into the valley, and there were many bodies laying here, belonging to both True Mantra Sect disciples and Heavenly Court cultivators.

Based on what he had seen thus far, it appeared that there was a giant city in the valley, and the buildings that lined the streets he was walking along appeared to be shops.

Prior to its destruction, this would've been quite a majestic city, and along the way, Han Li had found several decent materials.

Upon arriving at the conclusion of a wide street, a huge plaza suddenly appeared ahead of him.